Rock fall shuts road for more than six months

A pub landlady in Herefordshire has said enduring six months of a local road being closed has left her out of pocket and feeling "angry".

Kaytie Pinder, who runs the New Harp Inn in Hoarwithy, said the main route between the village and Ross-on-Wye had been closed since October.

Herefordshire Council said following a rockfall, the Hoarwithy Road was shut due to the danger of further rockfall from a privately owned piece of sloped land above the road.

On Saturday, the authority arranged for a specialist contractor to remove the rocks from the road.

The council said it had been in contact with the landowner, but various deadlines and notices had not resulted in the issue being addressed.

Bosses said they intended to hire a consultant to assess the slope early this week to determine if it was stable enough to allow the road to reopen.

"Nothing has been done up until today [Saturday]," Ms Pinder said.

"We're angry that's it's taken a very long time and the rocks have been able to be moved in one morning."

She said her trade had dropped by about 20% due to the road closure.

"I think the first few months were definitely the worst - it wasn't great leading up to Christmas."

It had also coincided with other roadworks in the area, she said.

Meanwhile, the nearby Laskett Lane had become damaged due to the volume of traffic using that road as an alternative and this had to be shut for repairs to be carried out.

This left her pub so quiet that during some daytimes it had been forced to shut as it was not worth opening.

Parish councillor Peter Pember said the rocks had now been removed and that he hoped it might be possible for the road to reopen once a geotechnical consultant had assessed the area.

"They're coming back [during the week] to see if there is any more likelihood of rocks slipping," he said.

"It's certainly caused a fair bit of disruption," he added, and said the parish council had applied "quite a bit of pressure" to have the issue resolved.

Ms Pinder said her pub tended to be busier during the summer months, however, and that she was keeping her fingers crossed that it would be soon resolved.

"It's a very big walking and hiking area," she said.

She had not been able to claim on insurance for loss of business as the road immediately outside her pub is still open – despite the closure being less than half a mile away.

She added that the daily school run now takes an extra 10-15 minutes each way, and had caused a lot of disruption for people living in the area.

The council said it would seek to recover costs borne by the taxpayer, and would provide a further update once the outcome of the assessment was known.

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